The Six of Them
by Kraken's Daughter
Summary: The story of the Sound Five, sometimes known as the Sound Four, though really, there were six of them if you were to ask Kidoumaru.
1. The Beginning

**The Beginning**

Kidoumaru had always been a man who liked to see things through to the end before moving on to something new. Thus, it was only appropriate that any story he told began with a proper beginning and expanded from there. If he were to tell his own story, for example, he would begin with the customary _I was born in… I grew up with… _Kidoumaru, however, didn't like telling his own tale. There was something about it that just felt so incredibly lonely and exhausting, like the end of a long adventure abroad, or watching the snow dance its way to the ground, blanketing the earth. No, it was the tale of the Sound Five that Kidoumaru had always wanted to relay, because really, there was nothing lonely about that.

And so it was that Kidoumaru was the first of the Sound Five to be recruited by Lord Orochimaru, after Kimimaro of course, but then again, it somehow seemed as if the pale boy had been there before time itself and would be long after there was nothing left _but_ time.

Kimimaro was strange like that. He sometimes reminded Kidoumaru of a fixture – some beautiful, sharp ornament – rather than a human-being. Or maybe just a rock – impersonal and cold. Kidoumaru had never been really good with metaphors.

The second to arrive had been Sakon and Ukon. The first meeting had turned out to be rather unremarkable, after Kidoumaru's initial shock at being greeted by two heads on the same body and Sakon and Ukon's surprise at being presented with three equally grubby hands to shake where there should only have been one.

Shortly after Sakon and Ukon, Lord Orochimaru had come across Jiroubou while on some obscure mission, and had brought him back to the village to add to his rapidly growing collection of misfits. This time around, the introductions were awkward to the point of being painful, as no one was willing to look anyone else in the eye, much less talk and bond and play and all that other crap normal nine-year-olds were supposed to do in the company of their peers. Of course, whether or nor "normal" applied to the five boys assembled was a highly-debatable question, starting with Kimimaro's ability to rip his own spine out and use it as a whip without so much as batting an eye and concluding somewhere along Kidoumaru's six arms, but not before traveling at a leisurely pace along the highly-scenic route of Sakon and Ukon's shared body and Jiroubou's… well… Jiroubou in general.

The last to enter the team had been Tayuya, and what an entrance it was. As soon as the introductions were out of the way and Lord Orochimaru had left his young students to their own devices, she proclaimed Kidoumaru a freak, deemed Sakon (and Ukon, but he was sleeping) a fairy, christened Jiroubou a fatass, and announced that she hated them all in a language so colourful, you would not expect it from the mouth of the most hardened of criminals, let alone that of a gawky, nine-year-old girl with pigtails and ribbons to boot. Then, leaving behind a scandalized Jiroubou, a pouting Kidoumaru, and a scowling Sakon, she had stalked off to torture small animals, or whatever it was Tayuya did in her spare time. As for Kimimaro, insulting him was always a vicious affair for the Sound Five's kunoichi, performed on a regular basis, as long as the Kaguya prodigy was out of hearing range or asleep.

The weeks following the completion of the Sound Five found the children mostly ignoring each other, unless Lord Orochimaru ordered them to train as a team or to spar against one another. They had an unspoken common agreement to stay out of each anothers way that was largely accepted, though Kidoumaru never minded breaking it to play Shougi or Go against Tayuya, who had turned out to be a brilliant strategist, despite the multitude of insults she would hurl at him periodically, and Jiroubou always seemed more than happy to sit quietly and listen to Sakon rambling on about some great exploit of his, Ukon interrupting every once in a while to point out the parts that Sakon was exaggerating.

Kimimaro mostly kept to himself, unless he was in a particularly good mood, in which case he would offer his younger teammates a few quiet pointers on improving their reaction time, or their awareness, or something else along those lines. He didn't want to be the leader of a weak team, he would say, but Kidoumaru always suspected the older boy was just a _tad_ bit interested in the welfare of his teammates, even if just a little.

And so, the six of them – because Kidoumaru always made it a point to count Sakon and Ukon as individuals – formed the infamous team that would one day be known as the Sound Five, and later, the Sound Four… even if there really were six of them all along.

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**Author's note:** Well, here it is. The first chapter. I hope you guys liked it. I recently discovered my love for the Sound Five and wanted to write something about them. I plan on posting the second chapter soon, though it might take a while as I'm going on vacation and won't be back for three weeks, which means that my only hopes for updating during that time would be through internet cafes. In any case, be patient and bear with me, please. I intend to finish this series, and I most certainly will be writting in my free time during the vacation.


	2. The Understanding

**The Understanding**

There was a common understanding amongst the younger members of the Sound Five that Kimimaro was a stuck-up bastard. There was no helping it, Jiroubou would argue. Kimimaro was older, even if only by a year, stronger than the rest of them combined, and being Lord Orochimaru's favourite definitely didn't help matters. In short, Kimimaro may have been their leader, but he certainly didn't act like their comrade. He rarely talked with any one of his teammates unless it was mission-related, and when he did, it was always short, curt, and condescending.

Kidoumaru, however, was willing to give his stony leader a chance, if only because he felt as though he owed at least this much to Lord Orochimaru. Therefore, as Lord Orochimaru had offered him acceptance and understanding, Kidoumaru had taken it upon himself to understand and accept Kimimaro. In his self-imposed mission, Kidoumaru would tolerate the pale boy's harsh criticisms and cruel insults and answer them as kindly as he could. He would often invite Kimimaro to a game of Shougi or a training session with the rest of the team. Despite the Kaguya's steady response on _no_'s and _leave me the hell alone_ and the rest of the team's not-so-well-concealed snickers and constant jibes, Kidoumaru was set on reaching the older boy.

Still, the spider-nin was anything but naïve and he knew when to give up. The day he gave up on Kimimaro was during one of their first important missions as the Sound Five.

It had been a surprisingly cool day of June when Lord Orochimaru had ordered them to assassinate one of the local lords who thought himself powerful enough to oppose the Snake Sannin. Despite his claims, however, the lord was not important enough to have a large guard, so no more than a few ninja would be protecting him.

What they had expected, as they penetrated the inner rooms of the lord's estate, were several chuunin and maybe a jounin or two. What they hadn't expected was an entire team of elite jounin from the Hidden Mist Village waiting for them just outside the room where the lord had presumably taken refuge. As it was, the battle had turned very bloody, very fast.

Kidoumaru soon found himself feverishly firing wave upon wave of arrows, only to have his projectiles intercepted by water-based clones, missing the real enemies entirely. Just as he was producing yet another arrow, relying on his powerful chakra-infused webs for protection against the clones, which would dissolve as soon as they got caught within them, a very real and subsequently very solid ninja rushed him from his left in an attempt to side-swipe the spider-nin. Kidoumaru deftly dodged the blow, instead being faced with several kunai, one of which made contact with his top right arm.

To Kidoumaru's left, Tayuya was doing her best with her flute, though she still couldn't summon more than one demon, and its movements were sluggish at best. Directing the colossal spirit with a skilful melody, Tayuya managed to injure her enemy, before she was forced into a hurried retreat by an array of weapons.

Jiroubou, for all his size and strength, was being pushed on the defensive by two Mist ninja, though every once in a while he would manage to land a blow on one of his opponents.

Sakon and Ukon were near the opposite wall of the vast chamber, separated and each facing an enemy. The twin-scowls on their faces reflected their situation, as they were both similarly outmatched by their opponents.

On a whole, most of the killing was being done by Kimimaro, who had already viciously dismembered one of his foes and was advancing upon a second one, all gore-covered and smirking.

It was at that precise moment that the lord chose to burst out of his safe-room, frightened out of his wits, literally, and accompanied by two more protesting ninja and a deafening crashing sound, in the not-so-far-off distance. It was clear that Lord Orochimaru's snakes had made their move upon the castle, destroying everything in their sight and leaving the target to the Sound Five. Upon seeing his enemies so close at hand, the small man, because he was decidedly rather diminutive, gave off a frightened squeak and froze in horror, mouth agape in an eerie imitation of a fish out of water.

Catching sight of the target, Kimimaro immediately abandoned his current enemy and, extending all the bones in his body into immaculate, but lethal spikes, charged at the still-frozen lord, slicing through anything and everything in his path. Unfortunately for Ukon, he happened to be one of those things.

Without a second's hesitation, Kimimaro flew right by his younger teammate, carving long gashes across his stomach and chest in an instant, before disposing of the two ninja protecting the lord in much the same way and finally impaling the target and finishing him off in one graceful and bloody spin of his body.

Once the assassination had been complete and they had somehow managed to escape the rest of the Mist ninja, who weren't really pursuing them anyway, they stopped near a deafening river under the cover of a thick brush for a quick rest and an assessment of the damages. Other than a few cuts and bruises, Ukon's were the only injuries worth noting. His clothes and hair were fast becoming caked with blood, splotches of it smeared across his pale face and hands, almost like some grotesquely-exaggerated war paint. As he lay there, propped against a tree trunk and wheezing with each breath, Sakon was fervently cleaning and bandaging his brother's wounds, while Jiroubou pressed soothing cold compresses to his feverish forehead. Even Tayuya was busying herself with retrieving more water, all the while cursing Ukon for being "such a god-damn pussy", though her heart didn't really seem all that into it. The injuries alone clearly weren't deep enough to have caused any internal damage, though without prompt medical attention, Ukon could easily die from exsanguination.

As Kidoumaru swiftly calculated the remaining distance to the Hidden Sound Village and the time it would take them to get there with an injured member, he stole a peek at Kimimaro. _'Cold and composed as ever. That bastard.' _The older boy was currently a little distance away from the rest of the team, apparently staring off into space, though Kidoumaru could tell that he was keeping a look-out for the enemy.

In the end, they had made it back to the village in time for Ukon to receive treatment. It had taken a few hours and an extensive blood-transfusion for his condition to be deemed stable, though from that point on, Ukon definitely spent more time asleep in his brother's body than he had before.

Later, after everyone had had a chance to rest, a seething Sakon had cornered Kimimaro in the courtyard, glaring death at the older boy.

"What the fuck did you do that for, you bastard? You almost KILLED him!"

Initially, Kidoumaru had approached the pair to make sure a fight didn't break out. They didn't need another teammate in intensive care, after all. However, at Sakon's outburst, he too looked expectantly at the Kaguya prodigy, seeking an answer. Kimimaro just made some movement similar to a shrug and, stony-faced and apathetic as ever, replied:

"He got in my way." With that, he shoved past a gaping Sakon and continued on his path.

Watching Kimimaro walk away so nonchalantly, Kidoumaru finally understood him. He was their leader, but he sure as hell wasn't their comrade. And maybe Kidoumaru didn't exactly get along with his teammates. Maybe Tayuya's insults were really too harsh sometimes and maybe Jiroubou was too uptight and Sakon too smug and Ukon too reserved, but Kimimaro… well, maybe there was a reason they were called the Sound Five after all.

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**Author's note:** Well, here's the second chapter. I hope you guys like it. Would you believe me if I said that I started writing it on the bus on my way to work? Well, I did. I'll try to write the next one soon, but I can't promise anything, because the only computers I have access to right now are in internet cafes, and I'm not sure I can save files on them.


	3. The Question

**The Question**

Kidoumaru couldn't remember ever meeting Kabuto. No matter how hard he tried to bring back some obscure memory of his initial encounter with the medic, he always drew a blank. Of course, this wasn't entirely surprising, as Kabuto was unreasonably-skilled at making himself unremarkable, but this memory gap still seemed ridiculous to Kidoumaru, to say the least.

It had started as a simple bout of curiosity, brought on by some remark or other, and it slowly grew and mutated into a question of such vexing proportions that Kidoumaru actually resolved to ask his teammates if they remembered anything. They didn't. Tayuya was the only one who had any shred of an idea left. _It was after a fucking mission, you dumbass_, _now stop asking stupid questions, _she had kindly clarified.

This, of course, brought Kidoumaru no closer to remembering, as they had had quite a few missions by this point, and anyway, meeting Kabuto after a mission didn't even sound vaguely familiar to the six-armed ninja. If anything, Tayuya's information just itched on him further, made him want to scratch the horrible, oozing, _spreading_ irritation that was Kabuto even more! The medic was practically becoming an obsession for Kidoumaru.

It wasn't that Kidoumaru particularly liked Kabuto, and he didn't dislike him either. Sure, he respected Kabuto, because he was older (already fifteen!), and stronger, and smarter, and Lord Orochimaru's right-hand man, and he was a hell of a lot nicer than Kimimaro, and maybe he was just a bit afraid of him, but other than that, Kidoumaru didn't really feel much of anything about Kabuto… except for a maddening urge to remember him, place him, because if there was one thing Kidoumaru liked – nay! – _needed_, it was a proper beginning to everything.

In the end, Kidoumaru had actually gone to ask the man himself, but to no avail. Kabuto had just offered one of his trademark I-know-the-answer-but-I'm-keeping-it-all-to-myself-because-I'm-a-sadistic-bastard-hahaha! smiles and, feigning innocence, told him that he didn't remember either, isn't this just silly now? Kidoumaru was not impressed, and he sure as hell was not satisfied.

Still, if there was one thing Kidoumaru could do, when the situation called for it, it was accept defeat and compromise. So, instead of drilling further and further into his (questionable already, in his opinion) sanity over his first encounter with Kabuto, he settled for his first defining memory of the medic.

It was in mid-September, a little over two years since Kidoumaru's arrival at Sound, that Kimimaro disappeared. No information was given to the rest of the Sound Five, other than that their leader was ill and would be for another day or two.

So, after a day or two, Kimimaro did indeed reappear, smug from head to proudly-striding foot, and maybe just a bit paler than before, if that were even conceivable. He also happened to be sporting a strange tattoo on the back of his neck and what appeared to be a rather nasty snake-bite, if you looked really closely. Not that Kidoumaru did, or anything.

The worst part, though, was that the pale bastard wouldn't tell the rest of his team what had happened, when they were clearly and quite-literally being consumed alive by curiosity.

Once a few unlikely hypotheses had been advanced and subsequently rejected by the team, it was agreed that Kimimaro was stupid and the whole incident was forgotten. As a matter of fact, no one so much as thought about it, until it was Tayuya's turn to disappear for a couple of days.

Unlike Kimimaro, she had reappeared in a state of beatitude, seemingly too preoccupied by her own reflections to swear at her teammates, let alone answer their questions.

Upon seeing the identical tattoo and snake-bite on Tayuya's neck, Kimimaro had left in a huff and spent the following day sulking. By that time, Tayuya recovered enough to call him a few names, before slipping back into docile silence. This, of course, worried her teammates more than any bloody, gaping injury could, but she assured them that she was just fine and threw a few benevolent curses at them to strengthen her claim.

Like Kimimaro, Tayuya had refused to answer her teammates' questions, though she, at least, had the good graces to explain that Lord Orochimaru had ordered her silence personally, and you just didn't mess with Lord Orochimaru's orders if you knew what was good for you.

And so, it was with that same frame of mind that Kidoumaru had appeared before Lord Orochimaru, when the Sannin summoned him one breezy November day.

"You have grown a lot stronger in the past few years, haven't you Kidoumaru?" A fairly banal question, yet Kidoumaru thought he saw a flash of something behind his master's eyes, though it was impossible to be sure. He was currently in Lord Orochimaru's personal study, which was unreasonably dark for a place where books are supposed to be read and paperwork dealt with. The Sannin, however, had somehow managed to make it even darker than usual. His pale skin shone strangely in the light of the enormous room's only candle, and that definitely had its effect on Kidoumaru. He felt claustrophobic all of a sudden, trapped by the sinister timber of Lord Orochimaru's voice, suffocating on his presence. Still, he forced the nervous (frightened?) shake from his voice and formed a carefully-chosen answer, accentuating it with a graceful bow.

"It would have been impossible without your excellent teachings, my lord." The words sounded strange and misplaced on his ten-year-old voice, but Lord Orochimaru enjoyed compliments more than he liked to admit, and Kidoumaru was not one to disregard that. He continued, hesitating momentarily at the next words, as he wasn't sure if it was this kind of conversation (though, to be fair, you never knew what kind of conversation it was when it came to Lord Orochimaru). "I am very obliged to you, my lord, and if there is anything…"

That unfinished sentence, though rather noncommittal, hung heavy between them, until Lord Orochimaru broke the silence, tracing a finger pensively across his pale lip.

"Obliged…? My boy, I don't want to oblige you. You are too intelligent for that. As a matter of fact, you are here to make a choice." There was _definitely_ something dangerous behind his eyes now! "I feel you have reached a point in your training where you must be taken to a higher level, given more power. There is a particular method I have developed for this, a seal. Once applied, you will be able to activate it to reach previously-unimagined strength. You will be capable of defeating entire armies by yourself! You will be a beast!" He was leaning forward on his desk now, gesturing excitedly with his right hand. "Now, I'll be honest with you. There is only about a 1-in-10 chance you'll survive, but I feel you are strong enough. Two of your teammates, Kimimaro and Tayuya, have already received the seal."

The implication was clear.

"In that case, I accept as well." Kidoumaru's bold declaration was met with a smirk.

"Don't be so hasty in your decision. There is something else. With the continued use of the seal, your free will will grow increasingly weaker. I need you to accept this too, to devote yourself to me entirely, _body, mind and soul_."

A torrent of internal questions followed Lord Orochimaru's words. Was he ready to give his life for Lord Orochimaru? Was there really anything or anyone else he could give his life for? Ever since he could remember, he had been forsaken by everyone, looked down upon and sneered at, until Lord Orochimaru. The man had truly done a lot for him and Kidoumaru knew enough to know that everything has a price. So, would he be happy paying that price and serving Lord Orochimaru? Just how fast would he lose his will? And in the end, what did that mean? He would serve Lord Orochimaru even with a free will, so what was the real difference?

"I accept."

Lord Orochimaru nodded with satisfaction at the conviction of his words and, without so much as a warning, his head shot out, too fast for Kidoumaru's mind to register the movement. What alerted him to it was the sharp pain in the neck and then a fire spreading from the wound, snaking across his entire body, laced with excruciating pain. And then came the screams, all sharp and fragmented, gurgling and tearing. They weren't human, couldn't be! They were red and yellow, blood and bile. They pierced his head, cut into his brain, and they were his, only his, the agonized cries of a beast…

When he finally came to, it was to the feeling of a cold compress being placed over his forehead. Cautiously cracking open an eye, Kidoumaru was met with a smile, friendly in all appearance, though slightly blurry. Focusing entirely, the spider-nin found himself facing a somewhat-familiar medic. After a moment or two of sifting through his memories, the name Kabuto came to mind.

"How are you feeling?" The tone was measured, clinical.

"Fine. How long was I asleep?" A circular look over the room told him that he was in the infirmary. With a grunt, Kidoumaru pushed himself up on his elbows, expecting a reprimand for moving. None came.

"Just about a day. You should recover shortly." There was something rather odd about Kabuto, Kidoumaru could feel it immediately. Why was he looking at him like that? It was as if he were studying a particularly interesting… whatever Kabuto studied. And that smile, why wouldn't it leave his face? Kidoumaru was feeling claustrophobic again, and this time, in plain day-light.

"So… can I leave soon?" Kabuto tilted his head to the side at the question.

"Soon…" There was an irritating prickle at the back of his neck, but Kidoumaru didn't dare scratch it, as if making a sudden move might set Kabuto off. But this was stupid! Lord Orochimaru wouldn't trust a maniac as his medic, right? He was probably just imagining things.

Kabuto moved shortly out of his field of vision, only to reappear with a glass of some odd concoction. Kidoumaru looked at it suspiciously. After all, ninja were trained to distrust any liquid they couldn't positively identify.

"Drink it." The command was soothing, but it didn't allow for discussions. "It'll help with your migraine and restore your energy."

Guardedly, Kidoumaru took the drink and swallowed it. It was rather tasteless and thick. Wordlessly, he handed it back to Kabuto, never losing his sight. To his surprise, the medic let out an amused chuckle as he took the empty glass.

"Are you afraid?" That smile, still! It was metallic somehow, sharp and smooth, scalpelic. Kidoumaru wasn't sure if he was imagining the _you should be_ behind the question, but he sure as hell wasn't denying it.**

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**Author's note: **Well, I finally finished the third chapter. I'm not entirely sure about it. It's weird. Anyways, I'm back from my vacation, so updating should happen more often, as long as I have the inspiration and motivation.


	4. The Heat

**The Heat**

Tayuya hates the heat. She hates sweating and burning and itching so badly you want to claw your eyes out and rip your skin off. It makes her want to scream, feeling damp and sticky and dirty.

But Tayuya hates this heat the most, because they're hiding in a cave, hungry and exhausted, absolutely burned out. A _fucking_ cave! She loathes it! And she hates this heat the most, because Jiroubou is bleeding and Kimimaro is coughing and Sakon is unconscious and her hair –

God, her hair! It's suffocating her, blinding her, bleeding into her eyes, burning her neck and shoulders and _fuck it all!_ Kimimaro's wheezing is driving her insane!

The rock she's slumped against is hard and rough on her skin, but she doesn't feel it, because Kidoumaru's eyes glazing over hurts more and Tayuya wants to scream at them for abandoning her, curse them out and make them come back, _the god-damn cowards!_

But she doesn't scream – can't – because some deep, inane instinct tells her the enemy is still out there and she can't let her guard down and give into panic.

But her hair! It's hot and wet and when Tayuya grabs it, it's Jiroubou's blood and she almost does scream then, because it's on her hands and face and in her eyes and mouth and with her last reserve of control, she pulls a kunai from her pouch and cuts it. Cuts it all off. Cuts off all of Jiroubou's blood, because she should have been watching him, should have alerted him, and Kimimaro's coughing and she's alone…

And she's sitting there now, doubled over on her knees with a fistful of her own hair and a conscience-full of Jiroubou's blood, all uncontrollable shakes and muffled sobs that sound like laughter and she can't stop! Can't stop the tears or the hiccups and it sounds so wrong, inhuman, and she can't stop and her stomach hurts now…

When Tayuya's frantic tears dry and her throat is too scratchy for her to sob (laugh?), she takes a few shaky breaths and assesses the situation.

Kimimaro is still wheezing and coughing periodically and god! she hopes that's not blood dribbling down his chin. Sakon, Ukon, and Kidoumaru are still unconscious and near the limit of their chakra reserves. Jiroubou passed out hours ago, but Tayuya knows (preys!) that he's still alive, so she sets to fixing him up to the best of her ability, ignoring her own body's screaming protests for rest.

Tayuya can't rest, she knows it. She knows that she can't relax into unconsciousness, because she's alone and she can't let the boys fall prey to their injuries, or to the enemies, or to the heat. Can't let the boys – her boys…

_Fuck!_ What's wrong with Kimimaro? She can't find any deep wounds to bandage, can't detect any poison to treat. There's only fever (that damn heat again!) and the coughing. In the end, Tayuya takes off her own battle-worn tunic and slips it on the older boy in the hopes that it will warm him up. It's a tight fit, but she can't think of anything else and she welcomes the chill running down her spine, raising the fine hairs on her arms and neck and cooling the beads of sweat gathered at her back and in the valley between her budding breasts, under the contracting bandages she wears.

Slumped against the rock now, shirtless and exhausted, Tayuya knows that there are a million other things she should be doing (traps, escape plans, concealment…), but she can't find the strength to think, let alone to lift herself up and god! she wishes someone, _anyone_ else were awake! Kidoumaru would think, Sakon and Ukon would set the traps, Kimimaro would take the lead, Jiroubou…

When Tayuya wakes up, it's to the sight of a red-faced Kimimaro tearing himself out of her too-tight shirt with his bones. She doesn't know whether she should laugh or curse at him for leaving her shirtless, _the ungrateful bastard!_ In the end, she settles for a strange combination of both, heavy on the snorts, and ends up walking all the way back to Sound short on hair and a shirt, not once during her ensuing cold regretting the heat.

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**Author's note: **A short, little piece in Tayuya's point of view. I don't know. Maybe I should have posted it separately, but I wanted to put it with the story. I'm thinking of doing these individual little bits in the other characters' points of view, so I'll leave it here and see where it leads me. 


	5. The Good

**The Good**

"You're pulling on my _hair_ – AH! you BITCH!"

They were training, as usual.

It had taken several days for the Sound Five to return to their normal routine after finally reaching the village. It wasn't so much the injuries, or even the stress they had had to endure during the mission. It was something else, something deeper, subtle, something about Tayuya's dangerously elevated temperature, Jiroubou's pale, taught face and Kimimaro's near-pneumonic cough, but Kidoumaru just couldn't put his finger on it.

Back in Sound, they had been forced to spend several days under Kabuto's care. Kidoumaru had discovered that the medic really wasn't that bad, once considered from a fully-lucid point of view, even if he still possessed a certain creep-with-a-scalpel factor. At least now that they were out of the infirmary, they could stop yelling at one another from their respective beds and start doing it as was right, directly in eachother's faces.

"Shut up, you fairy! Nobody's gonna give two shits about your delicate scalp in battle!"

"Tayuya, let him go! We're not sparring, we're target-practicing. Besides, you're doing it all wrong."

"Oh, yeah? How do _you_ do it, then?" Tayuya's sarcastic tone was ignored and she released her grip on Sakon's hair, only for it to find itself in Kimimaro's grasp.

"What the fuck! Hey!" Sakon's protests were, of course, disregarded with as much disdain as possible.

"Like this, see. You have to hold him with your palm flat on his skull, rather than just grabbing a fistful of hair and tugging. That way, you can shake him around more," he demonstrated, "without ripping off the hair and subsequently freeing him." With one final (and rather unnecessary) shake, Kimimaro released the sputtering, indignant Sakon.

"What gives, you bastard! You could've – Hey Jiroubou, stop laughing, you ass! I thought you were on my side!"

"Well, maybe if Ukon and you didn't have such grabbable hair…" Jiroubou didn't even have the grace to look apologetic.

"Kimimaro's hair is plenty 'grabbable', but no one's screwing with him!"

"Yeah, but Kimimaro's all spiky," put in Kidoumaru. At this, even the Kaguya in question couldn't help but crack a bit of a smile.

Decidedly, it was a good day. They'd been having a lot of good days lately. Even Sakon's sulking didn't last long, and by that time, Ukon had woken up and the six of them had gone back to training, content with acting their age for once, because they were twelve, and twelve was supposed to laugh and eat candy until it was sick and worry about the broccoli stuck between it's teeth.

It was the rare kind of day, when even Kimimaro let down his barriers, because there was really nothing to put them on edge.

It was good, but good had always been a fickle state.

Still, it wasn't until later that afternoon, after they had eaten all the candy, when Kimimaro had started doubling over and hacking uncontrollably, retching and twisting in agony, tears streaming down his pale face, that it got bad.

Kimimaro was immediately taken to the infirmary and the rest of his team was left shaken up, wild theories and questions chasing one another across their minds.

A messenger was soon sent to retrieve Kabuto from his assignment in Konoha, The moment the medic arrived, he locked himself in his lab, where Kimimaro had been moved. They had only managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of their leader on a gurney, before the heavy door was shut again. It was too momentary for Kidoumaru to describe Kimimaro's face as sallow and his breathing as laboured, the circles under his eyes as bruise-dark, or his hair as matted.

Later that evening, taking pity on his young charges' questioning eyes, Lord Orochimaru explained the situation to them.

"Kimimaro is ill. It's too early for us to know what it is, but Kabuto suspects a certain rare blood disease. All we can do now is hope that he's wrong, but there's no way to know until more tests are done."

This, of course, was incredibly vague and it did nothing to assuage the team's fears.

A few days and several dozens of tests later, the diagnostic was announced. Naturally, Kabuto had been right.

When Kimimaro was finally moved back to the infirmary, the rest of his team had gone to visit him.

"He says it's lethal." Kimimaro was sitting up in his infirmary bed, looking out the window. He didn't add any colour to the white room. "Incurable and practically untreatable. It's still in the early stages, but eventually I'll be permanently bedridden. Then, I'll die." He hadn't looked at them yet, refused to do it. His tone turned to venom. "I'll be _useless_! Absolutely worthless as a ninja. I wanted to… to be useful to Lord Orochimaru, but now…"

Jiroubou, braver than the rest, laid a comforting hand on Kimimaro's shoulder. "You won't be worthless. Least of all to Lord Orochimaru. He –"

"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about! You don't know _anything_!" Violently jerking Jiroubou's hand off his shoulder, Kimimaro finally turned his eyes towards his team. There was nothing in them but darkness.

It was then that it got ugly, because Kimimaro may have been angry and distant in the past, but he'd never been bitter, not like this. Kidoumaru knew where Kimimaro came from, knew about his clan, the cage, the Mist ninja. He knew about the anger, understood it, didn't question it when one of his teammates lashed out, because he felt it too. But this bitterness, he didn't know, because he couldn't. It was Kimimaro's and Kimimaro's alone.

Still, he'd seen it before. Seen it so much, it made him sick to look at it in Kimimaro now. It had been his mother's for so long, that even years later, he remembered it, even if he didn't know it. She too had had an incurable disease and the bitterness had remained to veil her pretty face even in death, after she had taken her life.

He remembered throwing his arms around his mother when he first saw it in her eyes. He'd wanted to shelter her, protect her, hold her until he drew it out of her and she loved him again, because _six arms are three times more enough than two, mommy!_ He had a sudden impulse to do it now, to do _anything_, but he didn't, because it hadn't worked then and it wouldn't work now. This, he knew.


	6. The Crisis

**The Crisis**

To be honest, Kidoumaru loved Lord Orochimaru's briefing sessions. Gathered in a semi-illuminated room, the Sound Village's elite would discuss any and all major news pertaining to the village. Measures would be proposed, ideas would be nodded to, assignments handed out… It didn't matter that Lord Orochimaru was doing the majority of the discussing, while the rest took care of the nodding. It was the feeling of being part of something bigger, important, of being in the know, being an elite that other villagers looked up and aspired to that mattered.

Today, one such meeting was being held and the topic _du jour_ was "the Sand Village issue" as it had come to be known. As of late, the Sand threat had been growing and the animosity between the two villages had swiftly shifted from negligible to alarming.

The whole dispute had been sparked by a recent defection by one of the Hidden Sand Village's best in favour of Sound. The Sand-native, though in possession of no great blood-line limits of any sort, was incredibly well-instructed in Sand Village jutsus, most of which were not only secret, but forbidden too. Needless to say, she had been accepted by Lord Orochimaru with open arms.

The Sand, however, was not pleased with this arrangement, to say the least. Two teams had already been dispatched to capture the rogue ninja and since neither team was going to make it back (Lord Orochimaru had made sure of that), an elevation in offensive efforts on the Sand's side could be assumed.

"What we must elect today is an effective plan of action in case of a full-scale invasion." Lord Orochimaru paced from side to side as he spoke. The ninja assembled nodded in unison. "We'll post scouts across the perimeter of out territory and have any unusual activity immediately investigated." Nod. "Unfortunately, we are, as always, short on soldiers."

"We could hire mercenaries, My Lord," a meek-voiced ninja suggested.

"Too disloyal, too unpredictable, not qualified enough." Lord Orochimaru hated dealing with hired swords.

"We should ally ourselves to another village." Katao was always talking about alliances, whether the subject was pending enemy invasions or peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwiches.

"Allies are the first to betray. They're even more unpredictable than mercenaries! That's why we should poison Sand's allies against them. Have _them_ do the dirty work for us," croaked an ex-Rock ninja from the back of the room.

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Lord Orochimaru silenced the assembled.

"No. I think we will wait for the invasion before taking action. I have bigger plans for the Sand Village." And with that cryptic conclusion, the briefing was over.

* * *

It was nearing sunset and the sky seemed to be bleeding along with the corpses littering the ground. So many corpses… Kidoumaru was tired of red, tired of sticky, dirty, sweaty red, tired of the smell of it and the sound of ripping flesh. The invasion had begun around noon, which meant that he had been at it for nearly seven hours. He had to sit down. Next to him, his team seemed to wordlessly agree. Of course, the team was only composed of Tayuya and Jiroubou by this point, as the six of them had been forced to split up a while ago.

Really, the invasion itself wasn't so bad. Sand had not sent a great number of ninja, as they had clearly not expected such a strong resistance. Most of the ninja weren't ranked above chuunin either. Besides, Lord Orochimaru had taken the upper hand from the beginning by unleashing an entire army of his summons. The giant snakes had performed quite the massacre.

The problem was keeping the remaining Sand ninja from infiltrating the village. That task had been appointed to the Sound Five, and Kidoumaru just couldn't understand why the Sand ninja were so damn hard to kill!

From the corner of his eye, he could see Jiroubou press a hand to his heart, as if trying to stay its erratic beating. He didn't look too good, all gore-painted and pale. The curse seal had exhausted them all. With a defeated sigh, Kidoumaru slumped against a tree. They would have to wait to be dismissed before going back into the village. Kidoumaru hated the waiting part. It made him want to pace and sleep and scream and cry all at the same time.

"Wake up, you dumbass!" Tayuya sounded on edge too. Unfortunately, Kidoumaru couldn't quite sympathise as her stage-whispered command was accompanied by a swift kick in his thigh.

"Ah! Damn it Tayuya! What d'you do that for?" _Strangling a teammate is a bad idea_, he kept telling himself, though it didn't numb the throb.

"We could be surprised at any moment. Those Sand fuckers'll kill you if you're dozing off."

"Well, I'm glad _you_, at least, are looking out for my safety and well-being." Kidoumaru's sarcasm-laden tone was met with a glare, but before either could make a move on the other, Jiroubou intervened with a gesture for attention.

"I think I hear something. It might be nothing, but we should check it out anyways."

With muffled steps and held breaths, the three stalked in the direction of the sound. A twig-snap. A frightened bird. And there, beyond the bushes, a four-man cell of Sand ninja.

"Oh, hell no!" Tayuya's voice came to Kidoumaru like through a wall.

For a moment, he stood paralysed, unable to process the situation. It was like looking through water without swimming goggles. Everything is distorted, cool against your skin, flowing soundlessly. The look on Tayuya's face was what sobered him up, pulled him head-first from the water and back into dry reality. She looked tired, washed-out and hung to dry. She looked as if she had seen this far too many times. And then the moment was over and the fight began.

With a well-calculated feign to the left, Kidoumaru dodged a spray of weapons and answered it with one of his own. Of course, more arms meant more chances to hit and that he did, though it was nothing critical. Still, it allowed him a gap in concentration, which he used to catch his opponent off-guard and charge. This time, he would aim to kill.

Jiroubou had his guy on the retreat. Every time the sand ninja's feet touched the ground, Jiroubou's fist was there to make a colossal crater in their place. The chase wouldn't last for long.

Tayuya was already performing her fatal melody. The gargantuan spirits of her flute moved with ease even amongst the trees, relentlessly pursuing their terrified prey. This was clearly another chuunin team; their breaths were numbered. Before long, the sound of_ their_ flesh ripping, the smell of _their_ blood spilling, their own shades of red would be added to the _paysage _of war, the tableau of death that _He_ was painting.

* * *

Lord Orochimaru was smiling. Sound: twelve dead, Sand: forty. Eighteen Sound ninja severely wounded. Five Sand prisoners. Lord Orochimaru was smiling and he was most certainly plotting something too.

They, the Sound Five that is, were assembled before him, all in various stages of recovery, all sporting bandages, and all-ears.

"First, I'd like to commend you all on the excellent job you did protecting the village."

Kimimaro might have looked smug at this, if his head hadn't been wrapped so profusely.

"Unfortunately, this is but the beginning of our ordeal with the Sand village. We have a long way to go before it can all be laid to rest."

_Oh, here it comes!_

"My dear children, I have a mission for you."

* * *

**Author's note:** I'm incredibly sorry for the long delay, but school is sucking all the creative energy out of me. Anyways, I've finally gotten off of my lazy ass and penned a chapter. Updating from here on might be just as slow, but I'll try to keep it regular. Oh, and there's finally a plot, it seems. 


	7. The Mission

**The Mission**

Sand… everywhere, there was sand… Kidoumaru had quickly deemed this mission one of the worst ones yet. It was just the five of them this time, because Kimimaro wasn't there, with them. Initially, he was supposed to have been part of in too, but he had had to pull out at the last minute. He was sick again, and they all tried to ignore the aura of death around him.

He was pissed about missing this mission too, because for the first time _ever_ Lord Orochimaru was leading the team. Kimimaro would definitely be resentful when they got back.

Not that there was really anything to envy. So far, the mission could be summed up in exactly three words: hot, dry, and dusty. There was a chalky feel to absolutely everything, because of the perpetual sand blowing in their faces. In most places, it was grainy and coarse and got in your hair and when the wind was really sharp, it scratched at your face, but sometimes, on more elevated spots, it was a fine powder that stuck to your skin, mixing with the sweat to form a thick, heavy coating. It embedded itself in clothes, bypassed lips to settle on the tongue, and irritated the eyes.

It was in one such area that they had set up their ambush… several days ahead of schedule. It was going to be a dreadfully long wait.

Kidoumaru hadn't yet decided if he preferred the scorching days, or the frigid desert nights. He had quickly discovered that to survive one such night, you had to dress in multiple layers and use many covers, despite the elevated temperatures during the sunlit hours. To top it all off, Lord Orochimaru wouldn't even let them light a fire, in fear of being noticed. The only consolation for Kidoumaru in the whole situation was that if they had a fire the sand would probably stifle it anyways.

To make matters even worse, it was incredibly boring in the camp. Lord Orochimaru was gone most of the time, almost making it seem as if there was actually something to _do_ in the desert. When he was around, he would mostly just drill them on absolutely _everything_ pertaining to the roles they would be assuming if the mission went according to plan. Names, identity, speech-patterns, biography, ties, favourite ice-cream flavours – everything was included in Kabuto's meticulously detailed profiles, and Kidoumaru had quickly come to hate the man he was to become. _Honestly, who lists eating as an activity of choice? Isn't this more Jiroubou's kind of thing?_

It was then that Kidoumaru's attention suddenly shifted from self-pity to Tayuya, who had just returned from another one of her hunting expeditions. The task had been wisely delegated to her by Lord Orochimaru, seeing as she was the only one capable of actually catching dinner in a seemingly uninhabited desert of all places. Besides, being stuck in one spot for too long made Tayuya irritable, and Kidoumaru was sure that secretly, that was just as much motivation for Lord Orochimaru as her uncanny deftness when it came to hunting. They hadn't even finished half of their provisions after all, and honestly, nobody, not even Lord Orochimaru, wanted to face an irritable Tayuya.

"Hey fruit-loop, stop fucking gawking at me and help me roast these things!" Of course, with Tayuya, irritability was always a rather relative concept.

"What _are_ 'these things'? Some kinda squirrel?" Kidoumaru couldn't tear his eyes from the furry _things_ that were to be their dinner. "You sure they're not poisonous or something?"

"Shut up, you idiot. How can a squirrel be poisonous?" Kidoumaru wasn't certain whether he should be relieved by her reasoning, or disgusted by her admittance of dinner's species. He opted for a bit of both and set to helping her roast the things over the scorching, flameless ambers that happened to be Lord Orochimaru's preferred method of cooking as they involved no smoke and minimal light-emission.

It was just as a ravenous Sakon, finally having returned from his water-gathering mission with Ukon, was sneaking closer to the ambers, blissfully unaware of just _what_ dinner was, that Jiroubou ran into the small camp, all sweat and determination.

"He's here!" he gasped breathlessly. Jiroubou had been keeping a look-out for the past eight hours, ever since the sun had come up. "The target is approaching our position!"

The effect of his words was immediate. Everything, roast squirrels included, was abandoned, the ambers hastily covered by a generous heap of sand, and the five of them, silently led by Lord Orochimaru, assumed their ambush positions. Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said. They had prepared for this days in advance, running every possible scenario over and over in their heads, until the plan became pure instinct. Lord Orochimaru, closest to the pass the target was about to take, cast each of his followers a meaningful look before turning back to the road ahead.

Kidoumaru's muscles tensed and ached with anticipation. This was probably the most important mission he had ever undertaken. If he succeeded in this, if he brought Lord Orochimaru's dream that much closer to realisation… He almost sighed in exhilaration, catching his breath just as it was about to hiss past his clamped teeth and into the still desert air.

And just like that, there he was, coming towards them at a leisurely, almost regal pace, just as Jiroubou had announced, just as Lord Orochimaru had described him. It was a vision of red hair and billowing white robes that so willingly glided over the sand and into their trap, accompanied by five Sand jounin. The Kazekage had just rounded the corner into their ambush.

* * *

**Author's note:** Wow, it's been a long time! Sorry, I've been terribly busy lately, and there's always a lazy factor when it comes to me. Anyways, I'm not going to promise quicker updates, because I honestly don't know if I'll have the time (or energy) any time soon. As soon as I do, there'll be an update, believe me, and no, I will not abandonned this series. I do plan to finish it. Eventually... 


End file.
